Arsene Wenger delivered a Churchillian speech at last year's Annual General Meeting to rally the Arsenal troops.

The Frenchman took a leaf out of Winston Churchill's book to assure shareholders that Arsenal could compete, pleaded for fans to remain united and promised: "The players are ready for a fight. I see them every day and they are ready to have a go."

Twelve months later and here Arsenal are again facing another AGM on the back of another trophy-less season when fight alone was not enough to compete with the Premier League's big spenders.

It is against that backdrop that Wenger will go into Thursday's meeting facing hundreds of shareholders and fans.

Wenger always fiercely defends his record of consistency and getting into the Champions League each and every season since he took charge.

In fact, at his press conference on Tuesday, the Arsenal manager seemed to be suggesting that supporters will not appreciate how difficult that is until it's gone.

Wenger said: "The most difficult thing at the top level is to be consistent and one day you will see that. We have lost many players, I think to combine both, we have a good team, a strong financial situation and be consistent is not easy."

Trouble is, clubs will always be judged on silverware. You don't get an open top bus parade for finishing third or fourth. Maybe you should because plenty of other Premier League clubs are insanely jealous of Arsenal.

But Arsenal are judged on Wenger's early success at the club. They swept all before them, winning Doubles, trophies and plaudits for playing beautiful football.

No-one would care what the board were doing or who owned the club if Arsenal were winning trophies every season. Wenger will be remembered as a managerial genius in years to come but is currently being judged on seven years without a trophy.

Meanwhile, Arsenal's board - with majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and chief executive Ivan Gazidis both expected to be taking questions at the AGM - are running a superb and profitable business model.

Yet football is the only industry - and it is a huge industry - where you get criticised for making a profit.

The majority of Arsenal shareholders want trophies rather than budget sheets and answers as to why money is not being spent on big-name signings to make the club successful.

Arsenal's hierarchy would have been cursing that the last Premier League game before the AGM was the worst performance of the season, a demoralising defeat at Norwich.

Victory over Schalke in the Champions League means the mood lightens and questions are on the catering rather than not signing a top centre forward. Defeat to Schalke means that an already restless group of shareholders will shout even louder.

There will be two sets of shareholders. The more conservative Arsenal Supporters' Trust. And the bitterly unhappy Black Scarf Movement. Both groups want to be heard.

The AST will put forward tough questions on the club's ambition. Gazidis insisted recently that the club is the "most ambitious club he knows."

Also on ticket prices and if the club will not spend more on players then why can't it lower ticket prices? Arsenal's game with Chelsea last month was the most expensive in Premier League history with the cheapest match day ticket going for £62 and match day profits topping £5m.

Furthermore, the club's support of the AST's Fanshare scheme - which allows supporters to buy part of a share - and commercial contracts may also be questioned.

In contrast, the BSM are being far more aggressive. They have 10,000 signed up on Twitter, 1,000 members and are planning to hand out up to 2,000 leaflets beforehand and unfurl a banner about greed before the meeting.

Raj Patel, one of the BSM members, insisted that his group are in for the long term and their target is not Wenger or the team but the board's running of the club.

They were incensed with thousands being spent on flying the Arsenal team from Luton to Norwich last week with the players up in the air for only 14 minutes.

Patel said: "We get even more popular when the team does not do well. To be honest, we don't want that. What we are saying it's not about winning, losing and we're not anti-Wenger, our problem is with the board.

"We always want the team to win but we will continue to question the board's financial decisions.

"There's money coming in and being spent on 'Arsenal-isation', club level tickets and yet the average fan is not seeing the benefit."

The average fan down the years is only interested in trophies. The truth is that fans are restless because Arsenal have gone seven years without a trophy. And trophies are ultimately the only thing that will satisfy the shareholders and supporters.